On Saturday April 8 I held a presentation at the Open day for prospective students who are interested in the study program in Computer Science.
Remarkably the Johan Bernoulli Institute at the University of Groningen (RUG) attracted over 100 participants filling the lecture hall with pupils and their parents.
After a general introduction to the Bachelor program by Martijn I presented my personal reasons to study Computer Science, introduced what that field has to offer, provided a glimpse into several projects performed at our institution followed by a very recent biomedical hands on example lecture tailored to the audience.
When I was a pupil I knew I wanted to study - I simply did not know what. Many fields like Mathematics, Physic and Biochemistry are interesting and I could not decide. A colleague and friend who studied computer science told me that with this field I could follow all of these interests if I want. Turned out he was right.
Following the arguments by Peter J. Denning I explained how multisided and interdisciplinarity Computer Science really is.
It is “science, Art, can surprise and has future” - not to mention the lucrative career opportunities.
I gave examples for all those points referring to courses and research projects offered in Groningen and by myself.
Finally, I presented a biomedical example lecture of ‘the art of problem solving’ based on computer aided diagnosis of Inborn Disorders using the Learning Vector Quantization algorithm.
As a finishing remark: Computer Science is less about computers, but more about modelling of information processes. Therefore, the Dutch name “Informatica” is much more suitable. I hope to see many people of the audience again - starting the bachelor program at our institute.
